I now live in Nottingham in semi-retirement. This means doing much the same as when I was 64 but with a state pension and tiny private pension as well. In 1970 I got a 1st in Economics at Nottingham University – and then in 1974 an M.Phil. for a thesis on a Marxist approach to the economic development of India. This led to a varied career working with mainly community projects both in the UK and abroad. In 2003 John Jopling of Feasta followed a suggestion of Richard Douthwaite's and invited me to a yearly group discussion by the sea – at Rossbeigh in Kerry. I have been going virtually every year since then and have spent much of my spare time involved in the ecological and economics discussions of Feasta, particularly in its climate work. After Richard's passing I stepped into part of a teaching role that he had had at Dublin City University teaching on a degree in Religion and Ecology. This teaching led, in turn, to this book.
Bringing disaster preparedness into resilience politics
By Brian Davey, Feasta
In preparing for disaster – and re-developing after disaster occurs – we must guide the redevelopment with a new kind of political economy that is socially just AND pulls back economic activity from recreating the same problems over and again.
Why Don’t Lions Chase Mice: review
By Brian Davey, Feasta
This short book by Tim Watkins is sub titled “An Introduction to Energy-Based Economics”. Perhaps it is worth noting that this is not the same as being an introduction to energy economics and many of the topics in the book would seem a strange choice of topics for an energy economics textbook – the theory of money, for example, or a chapter to explain the economic history of the last few centuries and decades.
The Case for Degrowth: Review
By Brian Davey, Feasta
Unless you read a book like The Case for Degrowth it is not obvious that some people are using the word to propose a radical policy package – qualitative, structural changes in ecological, social and economic relations as a necessary alternative to the economy growing quantitatively bigger.
Resilience and Collective Psychology – Fast Collapse or Slow Disintegration
By Brian Davey, Feasta
There is a need to explore what might happen after the limits to economic growth are reached, and whether humanity will face a manageable contraction or a variety of catastrophic collapses. In this chapter, I want to look at some of the conceptual thinking about these issues as they relate to the beginning of the 21st century.
Mental Health, Isolation and Lockdowns
By Brian Davey, Feasta
This is a lot clearer in a collective crisis like this one than if it were happening to one person but the essential issues are the same. There is the need for a new “package” of life routines and elements that is sustainable before mental and emotional turmoil will stabilise.
Coronavirus, Degrowth and Self Isolation
By Brian Davey, Feasta
The point to make in this article is of the need to self isolate and/or practice social distancing, at the same time as maintaining economic activity as best we can. There will be no one size fits all ways of doing it and each person will have to improvise during this crisis.
Surveillance Capitalism at the Limits to Economic Growth: Part 2
By Brian Davey, Credo Economics
Zuboff appears to be almost entirely oblivious to the fact that the context of the surveillance capitalism drama is being played out just as the global economy has reached and overshot the bio-physical limits of the carrying capacity of the planet.
Part One of Surveillance Capitalism at the Limits to Economic Growth – Social Controls through Digital Infrastructures have Bio-Physical Limits
By Brian Davey, Credo Economics
Few books have had the scale of impact on me as this one. It took me 5 days to read and revealed a world that was completely unexpected and quite new. Zuboff is aware that what she writes is about something novel and unprecedented. It is unlike what has gone before. That is what makes us vulnerable.